"A Farrago of Antiquities routed out of the Rusts and Crusts and Fusts of Time!"

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It’s taken more than 700 years, but the medieval villagers of Houghton in Cambridgeshire have had the last laugh: the foundations of their houses and workshops have been exposed again, as roadworks carve up the landscape they were forced to abandon when their woodlands were walled off into a royal hunting forest.

Their lost village has been rediscovered in an epic excavation employing more than 200 archaeologists, working across scores of sites on a 21-mile stretch of flat Cambridgeshire countryside, the route of the upgraded A14 and the Huntingdon bypass.

Much of it is now flat and rather featureless farmland, but the excavations have revealed how densely populated it was in the past, with scores of village sites, burial mounds, henges, trackways, industrial sites including pottery kilns and a Roman distribution centre. The archaeologists also found an Anglo-Saxon tribal boundary site with huge ditches, a gated entrance and a beacon on a hill that still overlooks the whole region.

Finds include prehistoric flint tools, seven tonnes of pottery, and more than 7,000 small personal objects including a Roman jet pendant carved with the head of Medusa*, a brooch in the shape of a chicken**, a beautifully carved Anglo-Saxon bone flute – and a startlingly well preserved timber ladder, radiocarbon dated to about 500 BC, found with a wooden paddle in a pit several metres deep.

Roman jet pendant carved with the head of Medusa*

A Roman brooch in the shape of a chicken**

An Anglo-Saxon bone flute from between AD 5th-9th century.

A 2.4 metre long Middle Iron Age wooden ladder which has been radiocarbon dated to 525 – 457 BC

A plaque dating to 43-400 AD is inscribed with Roman writing, perhaps a note or someone’s name. The text is called “cursive” which is more like everyday handwriting rather than the more familiar Roman capital letters seen on stone inscriptions.

“There is not one key site but a whole expanse – the excavation has given us the whole of the English landscape over the past 6,000 years,” said Steve Sherlock, head archaeologist for Highways England. “The Anglo-Saxon village sites alone are all absolute bobby dazzlers. The larger monuments such as the henges and barrows show up in crop marks and geophysics, but you can only really see things like the post marks of timber buildings by getting down into the ground and digging.”

Neolithic henge monument being excavated on the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme

“The workshops and animal enclosures give you an impression of the hard grind of everyday life, but when you get something like the bone flute you suddenly see into a world that also had art and music, dancing and entertainment.”

At Houghton the archaeologists have been walking along alleyways first used centuries before the Norman Conquest. The deserted medieval village, with remains of 12 buildings, had even earlier – and completely unsuspected – origins. The buildings overlay remains of up to 40 Anglo-Saxon timber structures including houses, workshops and agricultural buildings.

“The medieval village was occupied between the 12th and early 14th centuries, and the most likely explanation for its abandonment was that they lost the use of their woods when they were enclosed as a royal forest,” said Emma Jeffery, senior archaeologist from Mola Headland Infrastructure, who has been working on the site. “At a stroke they lost their grazing, foraging and bark for uses such as tanning leather, so the economic justification for the village was gone.”

The distribution of sites suggests that many were aligned along a lost stretch of Roman road now under the A1. Others are clustered around the ancient barrows and henges, suggesting they remained significant features in the landscape long after their original use as gathering and burial places ended. Major centres of Roman and later pottery production were found around Brampton and on the banks of the Great Ouse.

The excavation of around 350 hectares has been one of the largest archaeology projects in the UK. Work continued through one of the coldest winters in decades, with the diggers pulled off the sites only when the recent blizzards and sub-zero temperatures hit. Work will continue into the summer and there will be open days at several of the sites, including the deserted village.

*Jet Medusa-head pendants are an example of the integration of Roman and British traditions. It is a powerful, Roman emblem, yet executed in a local material, if definitely of jet (in Roman, as in more recent times jet was obtained from Whitby on the Yorkshire coast) and thus, most probably of British workmanship.

The Medusa is usually represented as a staring female face with writhing snakes for hair, nearly always depicted with a frontal rather than a profile head. In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus beheaded Medusa and thereafter used her head as a weapon to turn onlookers to stone. Thus, in classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared as an evil-averting Gorgoneion, considered to be an apotropaic symbol of protection, also appearing in mosaics and sometimes placed on doors, walls, floors, pediments, antefixes, coins, shields, tombstones and sarcophagi, in the hope that the staring eyes and serpents would avert evil.

Black, shiny materials for jewellery were popular in both Britain and the Rhineland from the late second century AD to the end of the fourth century AD. Without detailed analysis by reflected light microscopy, all black jewellery from this period, irrespective of composition, has inevitably been described as being made of `jet’. However, some items have been shown to be made of jet-like substances, such as shale, coal, or lignite.

**Zoomorphic plate brooches were very popular in Roman Britain c.AD 100 – 200. These were often cast in whimsical animal forms from copper alloy, many with multicoloured champlevé enamel details as decoration.

The distribution of three-dimensional chicken brooches has revealed a distinct military spread in Britain (Allason-Jones, 2015: 76-77 and Fig. 4.4.) or, at least, a predominance in large towns and civitas capitals (Crummy 2007: 225). Figurines representing the Roman god, Mercury, often include a cockerel as one of his attributes and it is possible that the chicken brooches were worn by devotees of the god’s cult (Crummy 2005: 225). However, the Mercury statuettes most often show him with a standing cockerel, as the herald of a new day, but it is difficult to establish whether the brooch depicts a sitting cockerel or a brooding hen.

A dog walker has come across an unexpected find whilst out in Somerset.

Roger Evans found a ‘well-preserved’ human skull whilst walking along the banks of the River Sowy.

He reported his findings to the police and it was analysed. After months of research, results revealed it belonged to a woman aged 45 or older during the late Iron Age (380-190BC) – several centuries before the first Roman invasion of Britain.

No other human remains were found, but the archaeologists discovered that the skull lay close to a series of round, timber posts driven deep into the river bed. Credit: Environment Agency

Analysis by a human bone expert showed that the female skull suffered considerably from gum disease and tooth loss.

Her diet included coarse material, which had unevenly worn her remaining teeth, and resulted in severe osteoarthritis in the joint of her right jaw. She had also suffered at least one episode of chronic illness or nutritional stress during childhood.

The woman’s head also appears to have been deliberately removed at, or shortly after death. Archeologists say such discoveries are becoming more common.

Severed heads are not an unusual discovery for the Iron Age, but the placement of the skull in a wetland beside a wooden structure is very rare, possibly reflecting a practice of making ritual offerings in watery environments. RICHARD BRUNNING, SOUTH WEST HERITAGE TRUST

Sometimes things can hide in plain sight. But that doesn’t it make any easier to tell their story.

A reconstruction of the Roman frontier fortlet near Gundremmingen in what is now Bavaria in Germany. Professor Fulford believes Reedham might have looked something like this.

For this 15th-century Broadland gem clearly has Roman roots, as can be seen in the large amounts of material in its walls, the thin tiles particularly distinctive. That impression was only strengthened after a disastrous 1981 fire which gutted the church – and revealed yet more ancient masonry inside.

Now new research may finally be helping to solve the riddle of one of East Anglia’s most mysterious sites.

But first, let’s scroll back the best part of two millennia to Reedham in the Roman age. These days the village is several miles inland, and the nearest it gets to water is the familiar chain ferry across the Yare which saves grateful drivers a long detour.

In Roman times the landscape was completely different. What is now the Yare Valley was then a vast expanse of water, the ‘Great Estuary’, a very different coastline in which Great Yarmouth did not exist, and the sea stretched into east Norfolk like a three-fingered hand.

The Roman pharos (lighthouse) behind St Mary de Castro Church – originally built in Anglo-Saxon times – which can be found in the grounds of Dover Castle. Is this similar to what happened at Reedham?

In this world, the site of Reedham suddenly takes on a much more important significance, being on a promontory guarding the approach to our Roman ‘capital’,Venta Icenorum– the modern-dayCaistor St Edmund.

But now research led by Professor Mike Fulford of Reading University is hinting at a story which may prove even more fascinating. Prof Fulford is one of this country’s leading experts on the Roman period and has excavated at such iconic sites as Pompeii and Carthage, as well asB Silchesternear Reading. He is also a big supporter of Caistor Roman Project, which is uncovering the story of Venta.

Prof Fulford, who came to Norfolk a few weeks ago to talk about his latest research, explained that it had long been established that the building at Reedham had an obvious connection with the fort ofBranodunum (Brancaster) . Both were built out of a grey ‘sparkly’ sandstone called Leziate Quartzite*.

The stone would have been excavated a few miles to the west of King’s Lynn and taken by boat around the coast to Brancaster, and then to Reedham. “I can’t think of any other example in Roman Britain where stone has been brought so far,” he said. “It’s 100km as the crow flies, by sea 130km or so. This would have been a terrific undertaking.”

Research has shown this material turns up in other Broads churches, but nothing like the quantities of Reedham. It’s clear that this is where the original building must have been.

Prof Fulford said investigating the church site offered considerable challenges. Forget about digging large trenches everywhere – this is a consecrated site with hundreds of burials in the churchyard. Researchers first had to win support from the parochial church council and the Diocese of Norwich for their investigation.

First, the site was surveyed – inside and outside the church – by ground-penetrating radar, one of the famous ‘geophys’ tools so beloved by Channel 4’s Time Team. Burials showed up as black lines, with white areas showing masonry. “It produced some really promising results,” the professor added.

There was a very strong 20-metre-long signal along the north side of the church, with more interesting results inside in the nave and the chancel too (‘but of course we can’t excavate there’.)

Then came a series of very small, very targeted, test trenches. In 2016 three were dug, with one proving a complete blank but the other two revealed as ‘robber trenches’ where later builders had removed the Roman material for reuse. “I felt we were getting ‘warmer’ but there was still no hard-and-fast [Roman] foundation,” he said.

The breakthrough came the following year when three more trenches were dug, producing ‘really encouraging results’.

One was empty, one was a robber trench – but the third revealed a spread of rough Roman blocks. These were not just of the grey west Norfolk stone but also of limestone from Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. “They seemed to be really indicative of something substantial, something clearly Roman.”

He added that the 20-metre wall lying under the church’s north wall showed it was ‘something more than a lighthouse’.

So what was it? Prof Fulford thinks the answer can be found not in this country, but in Germany. There is a fortlet at Bürgle, near Gundremmingen in Bavaria, then on the borders of the empire. Built on a cramped site – like Reedham – it was long and narrow in shape with a tower at both ends. In fact it looks more like a medieval castle than a classic Roman fort (“A good parallel is with one of themilecastleson Hadrian’s Wall”).

Nothing has been found that gives a firm date to the fortlet, but we can speculate it must have been started its life around AD200-230, the same as its ‘parent site’ in Brancaster. Reedham was part of a chain of coastal forts which began atReculver in Kent and includedCaister north of Yarmouth , Brancaster, Skegness (possibly), Brough-on-Humber and finally South Shields. They may have acted as safe staging posts for supplies for Rome’s northern frontier and Hadrian’s Wall.

By 300 the military situation had subtly changed. A rebel ‘British Empire’ had – briefly – broken away from central Roman control and there were growing problems caused by incursions from tribes outside the empire, in northern Germany and southern Denmark.

It wasn’t all war and strife. There is growing evidence that the Great Estuary was an important trading crossroads too. Will Bowden, Associate Professor in Roman Archaeology at Nottingham University and a director of the Caistor project, said: “Grain, instead of going northwards, also went eastwards [to the Rhine frontier].” The pottery shows there were links too, and the number of hoards which turn up in later Roman Norfolk show how well people were doing. “People in Norfolk were getting pretty rich on the back of it,” he added.

But what about the old idea of Reedham being a lighthouse? There is no reason why it couldn’t have been a fort AND a lighthouse – all they had to do was heighten one tower. That might also imply that there was some sort of relay signal station sited somewhere near Brundall where the merchants of Venta Icenorum could be alerted that a ship was on its way.

And what about those ships? Where were they being built? Some must surely have come to grief – are they waiting to be discovered under metres of silt in a Broadland field? All that waterlogging could preserve some amazing finds. It seems the best may be yet to come.

Back at Reedham, research continues. The fortlet discovery was unveiled in July 2017 but work is still needed to establish more of the layout of the building, and to try to find its date.

Prof Fulford believes there would have been a garrison of around 50 troops – and where there are troops, there would have been some sort of shanty settlement nearby. The wine shops, the drinking dens, the food stalls… they had to go somewhere (as did all the rubbish). Perhaps a villager will uncover evidence in their garden.

And there’s more.

One of the test trenches had a surprise in it. Underneath a spread of mortar were some fragments of charcoal. These were sent away for tests to find what tree species they were and, crucially, what date. Using the technique known as carbon-14 dating, the tests showed that the charcoal wasn’t Roman at all, but Anglo-Saxon.

The two samples, with a 95 per cent certainty, are dated to AD 650-770 and the other AD 647-778. These are the decades immediately after the death of St Felix, the first Bishop of East Anglia. We are talking about the dawn of the second Christian era in these islands.

Prof Fulford believes that a mass of the Leziate stone on the north wall may show a blocked-up arch of what was the first Anglo-Saxon stone-built church on the site. It may have looked something like the (still existing)St Peter’s-on-the-Wall at Bradwell, another Roman Saxon Shore fort.

And all this has been revealed by a total of just 12 square metres of digging.

The work goes on this spring. Somewhere on the site must be evidence of the equally substantial Roman south wall. And what about that elusive date – and more evidence about how the Anglo-Saxons took the site over?

Made of leather, they were designed to fit snugly over the knuckles and have the appearance of a protective guard.

The larger of the gloves (pictured) is cut from a single piece of leather

Dr Birley said: “I have seen representations of Roman boxing gloves depicted on bronze statues, paintings and sculptures, but to have the privilege of finding two real leather examples is exceptionally special.

“The hairs stand up on the back of your neck when you realise you have discovered something as astonishing as these boxing gloves.”

The larger of the two is filled with natural material, which would have acted as a shock absorber.

The smaller glove found “in near perfect condition”, is filled with a coil of hard, twisted leather.

It is understood they would have been used for sparring sessions as they do not have metal inserts used in ancient boxing bouts.

detail of the bronze Hellenistic Greek sculpture of TheBoxer of the Quirinal wearing caestūs

The continued archaeological investigation of Bamburgh Castle , once the palace site of the early medieval kings of Northumbria, has revealed a marvellous new find of national significance.

The copper alloy fragment is small, 23mm by 12mm, but beautifully decorated with an intricate zoomorphic representation of a bird, characteristic of early medieval north European art.

The discovery was the star find of the Bamburgh Research Project’s (BRP) 2016 summer excavation and has since been undergoing careful conservation to reveal an intricately decorated artefact that is a window into the art of a lost era of early medieval royal society.

Initial comments from a number of experts has suggested that the bird mount is unique, with no direct parallels and likely to be 8th century in date.

It is fascinating that the new image appears to hark back in time to the bird of prey motifs of the 6th and 7th centuries AD* and could represent a descendant of these earlier styles just as the later 8th century York helmet , is an update of the form known from the earlier Sutton Hoo, Staffordshire [helmet pieces in the Staffordshire Hoard perhaps?] and Wollaston helmets.

Bamburgh Research Project Director, Graeme Young, said: “The find was recovered from a cobbled surface revealed at the base of a narrow trench towards the end of the 2016 excavation season.

“The layers above date to the 9th century, immediately before the time of Alfred the Great and the before York became the Viking town of ‘Yorvik’ [Jorvik] and 100 years before there was a single kingdom of England. At this time there were a number of smaller kingdoms and Northumbria was one of these.

“The palace fortress of Bamburgh was one of the most important places in the kingdom and we have evidence of metal working, probably associated with the production of arms and armour for the warriors of the royal court in our excavation.

“In summer 2017 we will continue our investigations of the find spot and we hope to discover if it represents an earlier period of metal working or some other activity.

“At the moment our investigation of this horizon is at such an early stage we are unsure if the find came from within a building or from a yard surface or path where it may have been dropped. We are very much looking forward to getting back on site and continuing our excavations. Who knows what other finds await us this summer!”

Francis Armstrong and his son Will, owners of Bamburgh Castle said: “The bird is a spectacular discovery. It is a beautiful artefact and we are proud that it has been found here at Bamburgh. Finds like this help us to connect with the castle’s history and it is wonderful when we get the opportunity to display these ancient wonders so our visitors can enjoy them close up. We are grateful for the work the BRP do here at the castle and we have a great time working with them unearthing the stories that Bamburgh Castle has to tell.”

The bird will be on display at the castle, open 10.00am to 5pm until 29 th October with many other fascinating finds including pattern welded swords and intricately decorated gold work.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM MOLA HAVE UNCOVERED AN IMPORTANT ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY IN AN EXCAVATION FUNDED BY HISTORIC ENGLAND IN ADVANCE OF A CONSERVATION AND FISHING LAKE AND FLOOD DEFENCE SYSTEM AT WENSUM VIEW IN NORFOLK.

The waterlogged conditions of the river valley led to the remarkable preservation of burials that are extremely rare in the archaeological record, including plank-lined graves and tree-trunk coffins dating from the 7th-9th century AD.

Archaeologists have revealed evidence that this may have been the final resting place for a community of early Christians, including a timber structure thought to be a church or chapel, of which there are few examples from this period. The wooden grave markers, east-west alignment of the coffins and the evident lack of grave goods all support the Christian origins of the cemetery.

Anglo-Saxon coffins seldom survive because wood decays over time. Evidence to date has largely consisted staining in the ground from decayed wood.

The 81 dug-out coffins discovered comprise oak trees split in two length-ways and hollowed out. This type of coffin is first seen in Europe in the Early Bronze Age and reappears in the early medieval period. From Britain they are mentioned in antiquarian records from the late 19th century, but this is the first time they have been properly excavated and recorded by modern archaeologists. The burials, in hollowed out logs, were positioned in the lower half and the upper half rested on top to form a lid. Although they are not decorative, it would have taken considerable effort to hollow a single coffin, an estimated four man days. The fact that evidence for similar burial rites is also found in earlier cemeteries may signify the blending of pagan and Christian traditions.

The six plank-lined graves found are very rare in in this country and are believed to be the earliest known examples from Britain. The graves were cut into the ground, lined with expertly hewn timber planks, the body placed inside and planks positioned on top to form a cover. The relationship between the two burial types is not fully understood, but may denote an evolution in burial practices. Tree-ring dating is being undertaken to date the timber.

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: “These rare and exceptionally well-preserved graves are a significant discovery which will advance our understanding of Middle-Saxon religious beliefs and rural communities. This cemetery has been revealed because under the current system, archaeological surveys are required before work on a sensitive site starts. This site has immense potential for revealing the story of the community who once lived there.”
James Fairclough, archaeologist from MOLA, said: “The combination of acidic sand and alkaline water created the perfect conditions for the skeletons and wooden graves to survive, revealing remarkable details of Christian Anglo-Saxon burial practices.”

Gary Boyce, Land Owner of Wensum View, said: “It’s really exciting to have such a rare and important heritage site on my land. We set out to create a lake to maximise conservation and biodiversity, to alleviate flooding in the river valley and create a new spot for anglers to fish, and along the way have revealed the hidden secrets of the area’s past.”

Matthew Champion, the local archaeologist who made the initial discoveries at the site, said: “This discovery is going to significantly add to our understanding of just how the settlement patterns in the river valley developed over time, and is a fantastic example of what can be achieved by working closely with landowners.”
Tim Pestell, Curator at Norwich Castle Museum, where the finds from the dig will be kept said: “The site was in use in the heyday of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia and positioned next to a strategic river crossing. As with much of East Anglia at this early date, we have no documentary sources that relate to this site and so it is archaeological finds like this that are crucial in helping us to understand the development of the kingdom.

“This find is a dramatic example of how new evidence is helping to refine our knowledge of this fascinating period when Christianity and the Church were still developing on the ground. Detailed analysis of the cemetery provides the hope of better understanding the actual people living according to this new religion.”

The discovery is shedding light on a previously unknown religious site and early Christian rural community. Continued research and scientific testing, in the form of ancient DNA, stable isotope and dental calculus analysis, will help to develop biographies for the people buried. Archaeologists hope to be able to say more about where these people came from, whether they were related, and what their diet and health were like, once research is complete.

No grave goods were discovered in the dig but the surrounding area was full of artefacts

Anglo-Saxon treasure dating back more than 1,500 years has been dug up in a Louth-area field from a burial mound.

Two bronze bowls, a gold pendant and iron weapons including a spearhead, two arrowheads and fragments of a sword were found in a field by Alan Smith, a metal detector enthusiast.

They have been confirmed as being dated back to the seventh century. Dr Adam Daubney, find liaison officer for Lincolnshire County Council said that the artefacts clearly once belonged to someone with high status.

He said: “This is a once in a lifetime discovery.

“The finds are exquisite and almost certainly come from a high-status burial that was destroyed through ploughing many years ago.

“The finds date to the seventh century – a time when the elite in society were often being buried in barrows – small artificial mounds of earth.

“The individual would either have been placed into a grave within the mound, or perhaps even into a chamber which was then covered over.

“And the artefacts discovered at this site are rare objects that clearly indicate this was the grave of someone who had an important role in society – perhaps a local ruler.

“This form of burial is a powerful display of status; not only was the individual being buried with a large amount of wealth, the burial mound also became a permanent feature in the landscape.

“This elaborate form of burial has often been seen as evidence for the emergence of kingship.”

This will be the third treasure find in the area within the last eight months.

An Anglo-Saxon island was found in March and new evidence was uncovered to prove the town’s claim that it was the location of Sidnacester Cathedral, in August. Archaeologists revealed that an ‘ordinary-looking field’ in Lincolnshire was actually once a settlement with trading links across Europe.
Four sites including Louth and Horncastle have for around 1,000 years laid claim to the site of the Sidnacester Cathedral. In August, stone found on the Louthstone found on the Louth Julian Bower Playing Field was said to add to growing proof that the town was the landmark location.

Senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield,Dr Hugh Willmott, who has excavated the Louth site, said: “The finds are intriguing. While the gold pendant is an outstanding object, the real treasures are the enamelled bronze hanging bowls*. The metal detectorist found two sets of ‘escutcheons’ – small, round plates that would have been attached to the side of the bowl.

“Hanging bowls are some of the finest pieces of metalwork to have been produced in the Early Medieval period. We don’t fully understand what they were used for; some may have been used in drinking rituals, but we do know from other burials that some were filled with fruit at the time of burial.”

The finds are now being processed under the Treasure Act, and a report is being prepared for the coroner.

*[Hanging bowls are thin-walled, copper-alloy vessels, capable of suspension from three or four hooks mounted, at equal intervals, at the rim of the bowl. The bowls can vary in size from c.135mm to c.460mm. The hooks project from copper-alloy mounts, which are often enamelled, known as escutcheons and which are soldered or riveted to the body of the bowl. Often, other decorative features are attached to the bowl, for instance enamelled discs or bands. The bowls found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial are an example of these types of artefact.]